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Half a million disabled people living in New Zealand households need more care or support in at least one important area of daily life, according to figures released by Stats NZ today.
The 2023 Household Disability Survey (HDS) found that 62 percent of disabled people (506,000) had at least one unmet need.
"Unmet need refers to situations where a person doesn't have something they need in the way of support, reasonable accommodations, medical care, home modifications, or equipment," social and community spokesperson Nicolette Edgar said.
'Reasonable accommodations' are changes needed for disabled people to participate on an equal basis and to exercise their human rights.
Reasonable accommodation guidelines by Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission has more information.
Disabled people can have unmet need due to either not having the things they need, or not having them in sufficient quantities or quality. Unmet need was based on survey respondents' own assessments of whether their needs were being met.
The 2023 HDS asked about unmet need in several areas of life and found that disabled people had an unmet need for:
- support or accommodations at school - 51 percent of disabled people enrolled at school (48,000)
- support or accommodations in post-school education - 34 percent of disabled people enrolled at a post-school education provider like a university or polytech (35,000)
- support or accommodations at work - 34 percent of disabled people with a paid job (97,000)
- a health professional - 29 percent of all disabled people (245,000)
- assistive equipment or technology - 28 percent of all disabled people (212,000)
- household or personal support - 17 percent of all disabled people (146,000)
- medication - 14 percent of all disabled people (115,000)
- accessibility modifications to their home - 12 percent of all disabled people (104,000).
Unmet need was more common among non-European ethnic groups. Māori (72 percent with unmet needs), Pacific (76 percent), and Asian (71 percent) disabled people all had rates of unmet need that were higher than the average.
Disabled children were more likely than disabled adults to have unmet needs, at 76 percent and 61 percent respectively. Children were defined as being 14 years or younger. Adults were 15 years or older.
| Age group | Percent |
| 0 to 14 years (children) | 76 |
| 15 to 44 years | 71 |
| 45 to 64 years | 66 |
| 65+ years | 47 |
| 72.9 | 79.1 |
|---|---|
| 67.2 | 74.8 |
| 61.9 | 70.1 |
| 42.8 | 51.2 |
Disabled adults who had lived with functional difficulty since childhood were more likely to have unmet needs than those who had become disabled later in life, at 72 percent and 57 percent respectively.
The 2023 HDS used questions based on those developed by the Washington Group on Disability Statistics (WG). The WG's work is supported by the United Nations Statistical Commission to improve statistics about disabled people. Shorter versions of the WG question sets are used in other social surveys in New Zealand. This is the first time the HDS has used questions based on those developed by the WG to identify disabled people, which means that results can't be compared with those from previous disability surveys. For more information, see Household Disability Survey 2023 - findings, definitions, and design summary.
Unmet needs at school were common
Just over half (51 percent or 48,000) of disabled people enrolled at school had an unmet need for at least 1 of 5 specified types of support or accommodation:
- a resource teacher or teacher aide
- a health professional at school
- assistive technology or equipment to help with schoolwork
- accessible building features at their school
- adapted classroom materials.
Of those specified, the greatest unmet need was for teacher aides or resource teachers, with 38 percent of disabled school students needing but not receiving, or not receiving enough, help from a teacher aide or resource teacher.
| Unmet need | Percent |
| Resource teacher or teacher aide | 38 |
| Support from a health professional at school | 20 |
| Assistive technology or equipment | 16 |
| Accessible building features | 10 |
| Adapted classroom materials | 8 |
| 33.8 | 42.2 |
|---|---|
| 16.5 | 23.5 |
| 13 | 19 |
| 7.8 | 12.2 |
| 5.8 | 10.2 |
1 in 3 employed disabled adults had unmet needs at work
Of the disabled adults who were in paid employment, 34 percent (97,000) had an unmet need for at least 1 of 4 specified accommodations at work:
- ability to vary tasks or work schedule
- accessible building features at their workplace
- modifications to their workstation or assistive equipment or technology
- support from others.
| Unmet need | Percent |
| Vary tasks or change work schedule | 17 |
| Accessible building features | 11 |
| "Modifications | 10 |
| equipment | 9 |
| or technology " | |
| Support from others |
| 14.1 | 19.9 |
|---|---|
| 8.5 | 13.5 |
| 7.7 | 12.3 |
| 7.1 | 10.9 |
"The survey showed us that disabled adults with unmet needs at work were less likely to have high levels of job satisfaction," Edgar said.
Only 52 percent of disabled adults with work-related unmet needs rated their job satisfaction as either 4 or 5 (out of 5), compared with 70 percent of disabled adults who did not have work-related unmet needs.
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